Texas man accused of coercing Billings teen into 'intimate relationship'

A Texas man pleaded not guilty this week to accusations of enticing a Billings teen to flee the state with him.

Jesse Doniven Najera has been charged in Yellowstone County District Court with custodial interference. Police arrested the 23-year-old last month after authorities allegedly found him traveling with a 16-year-old girl from Billings.

Najera intended to bring the girl back to his home in Texas, court documents said, for the two to engage in an “intimate relationship.”

Following his arraignment Thursday, Najera has remained in custody at Yellowstone County Detention Facility with his bail set at $200,000.

In early April, officers with the Billings Police Department responded to a report of a possible kidnapping at a Billings movie theater. Police spoke with a woman who said she was watching a movie with her 16-year-old relative. The teen got up to use the restroom, according to charging documents, but did not return.

Investigators pulled surveillance footage that allegedly showed the 16-year-old girl leaving the theater, walking to the parking lot and getting into a Chevy sedan. The sedan then drove away.

Law enforcement allegedly traced the Chevy to Wyoming, and a trooper with Wyoming Highway Patrol pulled the sedan over. The trooper, assisted by a deputy from the Sheridan County Sheriff's Office, identified 16-year-old as the girl reported missing out of Billings, according to charging documents.

Najera was booked into the Sheridan County jail, court documents said, where he agreed to speak with investigators. Although he initially claimed the girl was his sister, Najera allegedly admitted that he met her through TikTok and started exchanging messages with the teen.

Through the platform WhatsApp, Najera arranged to pick up the teen outside the movie theater in Billings and bring her to Texas to “have an intimate relationship with her, and have her be a mother figure to his son,” according to charging documents.

Prior to driving to Billings, Najera allegedly received sexually explicit photos and videos of the teen. Najera pretended to be younger when the two began exchanging messages, court documents said.

On April 9, Yellowstone County prosecutors filed criminal charges against Najera, and a six-figure warrant was filed for his arrest. He entered YCDF on May 6 and appeared for his arraignment the following day.

Adults pretending to be younger is one of the more common tactics used in online enticement, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which entails using web platforms to coerce children and teens into sexual exploitation. In 2024, the NCMEC received more than 450,000 reports of online enticement.

In 2023, the center published a study of 476 cases in which online predators abducted children whom they had coerced into meeting in person. Although nearly all of the children reported missing were found, in one third of those cases, law enforcement recovered those children in another state. Some of the most common apps that predators used to initiate conversations with those children included Snapchat, Discord and TikTok.

If convicted of custodial interference, Najera could be sentenced up to 10 years in prison.

Earlier this week, a Billings man pleaded not guilty to sex trafficking charges after he allegedly preyed on women seeking social services in town, offering essentials like food and clothes in exchange for sex.

As of Friday, Brian Irl Ward, who was previously convicted of sex trafficking in Missoula County, was still in custody at YCDF with his bond set at $200,000.